


On The Rocky River

by lothering



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Multi, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2018-04-08 19:26:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4316871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lothering/pseuds/lothering
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mankind has made a habit of leaving whatever lives in the dark to it's own devices. Which leaves room to reason that werewolves do exist, that their cultures are expansive and ancient, and why yes, they do have courtship rituals of their own. </p><p>Otherwise regarded as the story of a courtship between two horrendously awkward werewolves going against the grain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On The Rocky River

**Author's Note:**

> This is, so far, the preface of the story. Blah blah blah, it's a bit dull, but after this it's all of that awkward, dorky Nork stuff we all love and enjoy - except that they're both werewolves. So, y'know, that just makes them ten times cooler.

[PREFACE]

\-----

Four Legs River was the beginning of all life in the forest. From the basin in the valley which it fed, to the masses of the mountains it slithered in between, it provided the water that the wildlife needed to thrive. It was the home to the salmon, who bravely jumped upwards of it's roaring downhill flow, who were in turn food for the bears that lumbered through the valleys and trees. It was on the banks of the river that otters socialized, nattering on and on endlessly in the way that they do, before taking to the water to sluice through it's pull, floating hand-in-hand with their mates and young as the tide carried them downstream.

It was here, too, that the more auspicious creatures of the forest gathered for their moonlit rituals.

Mankind had always been cautious of the dark and the unknown that lingered within, and it was rightly so that they were. For though in recent years science had seemingly disproved the existence of supernatural creatures - dragons, unicorns and gremlins, for starters - there always remained things that science could not explain. Not that you would hear of many - if any - of these things, of course. Such secrets are hush-hush at best, and left alone to their own devices at worst.

Which brings one to question: beyond the bears, the coyotes, the beavers, the otters and the countless other known woodland species, what lived in the dark of the forest which the Four Legs River fed? 

It is easiest to start at the 'almost beginning', really, when telling some poor soul about the existence of werewolves.

There are no immortal creatures on this planet, therefore one can never know the exact point in time at which an organism first blossomed into existence. The same goes for werewolves, though myth and sci-fi horror likes to pretend otherwise. As far back as can be remembered by the werewolf race itself - otherwise known as homo lupus sapien - through the telling of verbal records and histories, the first werewolf was a woman. The stories name her Lycaon, 'The Mother Wolf', when spoken in their rough, brutish tongue. The first story recalls a human woman lost in a forest, stumbling across a river (depending on the retelling, it may be whichever river is closest to the local pack) on the night of a full moon. Near dead of thirst, the woman fell into the river and drank in the reflection of the moon, failing to notice that mere footsteps away, a wolf was doing the same. The magic of the moon recognized that the woman was close to death, and so gave her a form similar to that of the wolf who shared water with her in it's light, so that she might return with the wolf to it's pack and live.

While it is impossible to trace the facts of this story and confirm that any of the above was possible at all, so is it equally impossible to disprove it, particularly when faced with a fully grown, lumbering, territorial werewolf.

Which brings us back to the moonlit rituals that happen along the banks of the Four Legs River.

There are several packs that live in the mountain range that the river and it's forest belong to, though they all stake their claims cautiously and are intensely defensive of what territory they do own. Few of the packs are friendly, most tolerating each other so far as sharing the river for the required sustenance it provides, however there are two packs in particular that are markedly more amiable to each other than to any of the packs in the range. These two packs are recognized as 'Detus' and 'Temron', respectively settling on the western and eastern sides of the Four Legs. 

Pack Detus, in the werewolf community of that particular range, are well known for their tracking and stalking abilities. In the pack's centuries of existence, few were the times in which any of it's members failed to bring down a kill or exact punishment on an offending trespasser. Few marks could escape the nose and the perseverance of a Destus wolf. On the opposing side of the river, Temron pack members were fables for their keen eyesight and multifaceted fighting styles. It would be ignorant to believe that packs living close together did not need scouts or warriors, and Temron was blessed enough to have reared the best of both in the mountain range.

For several centuries, the two packs had not been harmonious. Prior pack leaders were hot-headed, stubborn, and predominantly stupid. Few lacked the ability to think beyond the lines of 'other wolved bad, take food, must kill', and as such for a good portion of their histories, the packs were notoriously hostile. With the addition of other packs in the area, and new ones springing up every so many decades, not only were they stretched thing waging territorial combat against each other, but such the same against these numerous other packs, too. By the 18th century, both Pack Detus and Pack Temron were low in numbers and at risk of being wiped out entirely by upstart trespassers. It was then, with some consideration and much deliberation that the leaders of Detus and Temron realised that they needed each other's co-operation to survive. They divided their territories by the river, and pledged allegiance to one another in order to defend their land. In time, they would hold fast against various ambushes from the other packs in the range, and within a century no stronger bond would be encountered between any other packs in the range. Though this earned much scorn from the others of their kind, the arrangement suited Detus and Temron well, and continues to this day.

On the subject of the aforementioned moonlight rituals, it is in hindsight a relatively simple matter. For both Detus and Temron, the sixth full moon of the year is a much celebrated and joyous time, spent jointly on the riverbanks and crossed into each others territories with little said about it. After all, everybody likes to celebrate the proposal of new marriages (otherwise known as Pair Bonds, in their culture). 

If the story is told right, it is known that some years after her transformation, Lycaon found her mate in the light of the sixth full moon of that particular year. As such, the packs of Four Legs River celebrated the sixth full moon as the Moon of Pair Bonding. During the celebration, pack members of courting age choose whom they wish to engage, though the blessing of the pack leader must be bestowed first. For the duration of the next six moons (or months, depending on one's interpretation), the pair would court each other, with the intent to declare an official bonding on the last full moon of the year. While not all courtships last through this phase, it is at such celebrations that 'arranged bondings' are frequently made between influential pack members and, most notable, between the leaders of the packs themselves if they are amiable as Detus and Temron are.

Which brings to mind a new story, now that I think of it. A story of a courtship between two pack wolves of Temron and Detus respectively, and a lovely little thing it is. You might enjoy it yourself, yes?

After all, everybody likes good love story.


End file.
